PHILADELPHIA — Students and teachers with Peninsula Catholic High School in Newport News celebrated Sunday Mass in Philadelphia with Pope Francis and roughly hundreds of thousands of their closest friends.

The experience of attending a papal Mass was a special one for Peninsula Catholic music teacher Jim Edwards, who became a Catholic on Easter 2014.

He wasn't even going on the trip initially, but he stepped in after another teacher wasn't able to make it on the trip.

"Being able to be part of something so big all over the world, it's just the tip of the iceberg for what's to come," he said, of the pope's future.

Under an overcast sky, the pontiff celebrated a multilingual Mass at Eakins Oval, near the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the crowds gathered along Benjamin Franklin Parkway to be a part of the service.

In a homily delivered in Spanish, Pope Francis said that holiness is manifested through small gestures and kindnesses.

"Love is shown by little things, by attention to small daily signs which make us feel at home," he said. "Faith grows when it is lived and shaped by love. That is why our families, our homes, are true domestic churches."

Those kindnesses done for loved ones should also be extended more broadly to others, he said.